Wicket and Teebo of Endor, e.g. / SUN 1-4-26 / Ixnays from Irkutsk / Ultimate end, to Aristotle / Obnoxious fratty sort, colloquially / Combine using heat without melting, as particles / Certain drink + what that drink has a lot of = women's lifestyle website / Elf portrayed by Cate Blanchett in "The Fellowship of the Ring" / Where idols go head-to-head? / Queen ___ Land (region of Antarctica claimed by Norway) / Titular role in a 2024 Disney prequel / Word before winner or after Wonder

Constructor: Gene Louise De Vera

Relative difficulty: Medium

[20D: Wicket and Teebo of Endor, e.g. = EWOKS]

THEME: "Base Pairs" — famous people who were DOUBLE-CROSSED (33D: Like five Across answers by five Down answers in this puzzle, literally and figuratively)—the double-crossers literally double-cross their victims (i.e. cross their victims twice in the grid) [curiously, as someone in the comments has noted, with each double-crossing pair, the double-crosser who is actually *clued* as the double-crosser crosses his victim each time at the last letter (or “back”), making him a kind of “back-stabber” (!!)]:

Theme answers:

• CAESAR (35A: General who crossed the Rubicon)
• BRUTUS (3D: Name of Ohio State's buckeye mascot)
• BRUTUS (30D: Believing his friend and ally had too much power, he led a party of conspirators to put an end to him)
• OSIRIS (8A: Egyptian god of the underworld)
• SET (9D: Ready ... or a word after ready)
• SET (13D: He scattered his brother's remains across the land and usurped his throne)
• MUFASA (61A: Titular role in a 2024 Disney prequel)
• SCAR (50D: Traumatize)
• SCAR (52D: He led his brother to his demise by endangering his nephew)
• JESUS (91A: The Lamb)
• JUDAS (91D: 2011 Lady Gaga hit)
• JUDAS (69D: He sold out his master in exchange for silver)
• OTHELLO (119A: Whence the phrase "wear one's heart on one's sleeve")
• IAGO (105D: Jafar's parrot in "Aladdin")
• IAGO (107D: Driven by envy toward his comrades, he fabricated events that led to their downfall)

Word of the Day: SET (13D) —

Set (/sɛt/; Egyptological: Sutekh - swtẖ ~ stẖ or: Seth /sɛθ/) Ⲥⲏⲧ (Coptic) is a god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth (Σήθ). Set had a positive role where he accompanied Ra on his barque to repel Apep (Apophis), the serpent of Chaos. Set had a vital role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the Red Land (desert), where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the Black Land (fertile land).

In the Osiris myth, the most important Egyptian myth, Set is portrayed as the usurper who murdered and mutilated his own brother, Osiris. Osiris's sister-wife, Isis, reassembled his corpse and resurrected her dead brother-husband with the help of the goddess Nephthys. The resurrection lasted long enough to conceive his son and heir, Horus. Horus sought revenge upon Set, and many of the ancient Egyptian myths describe their conflicts. (wikipedia)

• • •

***ATTENTION: READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** : It's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. 2026 is a big year for me, as Rex Parker Solves the NYT Crossword will celebrate its 20th birthday in September. Two decades. The big 2-0. A score of years. One score and no years ago, I brought forth on this Internet a new blog, conceived in ... I think I'll stop there, but you get the idea. I've been at this a long time, and while it has been my privilege and joy, it has also been (and continues to be) a lot of work. Very early mornings, no days off—well, no days off for the blog. I do have two very able regular subs (Mali and Clare) who write for me once a month, as well as a handful of other folks who stand in for me when I go on vacation. But otherwise, it's just me, every dang day, up by 4am, solving and writing. I've never been this disciplined about anything in my life. Ask anyone. "Is he disciplined about anything else?" "No, he is not. Just this one thing. It's weird." And it's because I have a responsibility to an audience (that's you). Even after nearly 20 years, I'm still genuinely stunned and exceedingly grateful that so many of you have made the blog a part of your daily routine. Ideally, it adds a little value to the solving experience. Teaches you something you didn't know, or helps you look at crosswords in a new way, or makes you laugh (my highest goal, frankly). Or maybe the blog simply offers a feeling of commiseration—a familiar voice confirming that yes, that clue was terrible, or yes, that themer set should have been tighter, or wow, yes, that answer was indeed beautiful. Whether you find it informative or comforting or entertaining or infuriating—or all of the above—if you're reading me on a fairly regular basis, there's something valuable you're getting out of the blog. And I couldn't be happier about that.

["That's upside-down, sweetheart"]

Hopefully by now you can tell that for better or worse, what you get from me is my honest, unvarnished feelings about a puzzle. There's an explanatory element too, sure, but this blog is basically one person's solving diary. Idiosyncratic. Personal. Human. I'm not interested in trying to guess consensus opinion. I'll leave that to A.I. All I can do, all I want to do, is tell you exactly what it was like for me to solve the puzzle—what I thought, what I felt. Because while solving may seem like mere box-filling to outsiders, crossword enthusiasts know that the puzzle actually makes us feel things—joy, anguish, confusion (confusion's a feeling, right?). Our feelings might not always be rational, but dammit, they're ours, and they're worth having. And sharing. I love that crosswords engage the messy, human side of you, as well as the objective, solution-oriented side. If I just wanted to fill in boxes, without any of the messy human stuff, I'd solve sudoku (no shade, sudoku fans, they're just not for me!).

[conferring w/ my editor]

Over the years, I have received all kinds of advice about "monetizing" the blog, invitations to turn it into a subscription-type deal à la Substack or Patreon. And maybe I'd make more money that way, I don't know, but that sort of thing has never felt right for me. And honestly, does anyone really need yet another subscription to manage? As I've said in years past, I like being out here on this super old-school blogging platform, just giving it away for free and relying on conscientious addicts like yourselves to pay me what you think the blog's worth. It's just nicer that way. How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage, as well as at the bottom of every write-up):

Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker") (be sure to date them with the new year, 2026!):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905

The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)

All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All Venmo contributions will get a little heart emoji, at a minimum :) All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I know snail mail is a hassle for most people, but I love it. I love seeing your (mostly) gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my (completely) awful handwriting. The human touch—it's nice. In recent years, my daughter has designed my annual postcards, but this year, grad school and NYC theater work are keeping her otherwise occupied, so I had to seek design help elsewhere. Enter Katie Kosma, who is not only a professional illustrator/designer, but (crucially!) a crossword enthusiast. She listened patiently to my long and disorganized list of ideas and in very short order was able to arrive at this year's design, inspired by film noir title cards. 

I'm very happy with how it turned out. The teeny boxes inside the letters, the copyright credit ("Natick Pictures, Inc."), and especially that pencil lamppost—mwah! I know most people solve online now, and many paper solvers prefer pen, but the pencil just feels iconic, and appropriate for the card's throwback vibe. That lamppost was entirely Katie's creation. She was a dream to work with. Can't say enough good things about her.

Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." 

Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership. Please know that your support means a lot to me and my family. Now on to today's puzzle... 

• • •

OK, this puzzle is kinda funny, in that its basic premise violates a basic rule of crosswords, namely that you can't have the same entry appear twice in the grid. You're not even supposed to have variants of the same word in the same word (say, JUMPED and JUMP START). But today, the puzzle flagrantly violates that rule ... for a reason! And a good one. The "double"ness is baked into the thematic concept. Double-crossers literally double-cross their victims. Conceptually, it's pretty fantastic. You gotta do some pretty weird things with the cluing to get the whole thing to work. The clues on those doubled answers are sometimes a ssttrreettcchh. The OSU mascot? How is that guy not named Bucky? Bucky the Buckeye! Whose idea was BRUTUS? BRUTUS either killed Caesar or molested Olive Oyl. There are no good BRUTUSes (Bruti?). Why would you name your mascot that? And what about this 2011 Lady Gaga song? How big a "hit" was it? Admittedly, in 2011 I was probably as un-pop savvy as I've ever been. Looks like it peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100—definitely a "hit." But totally unknown to me. But it doesn't matter how well known the song is because if you don't know it, you can infer it from the theme, if nothing else. I guess the "Base Pairs" of the title are the "pairs" of names that double-cross the Across themers. It's kind of weird to imagine OTHELLO double-crossed by a parrot, or Caesar stabbed by the Buckeye mascot, but I'd say that's more a wacky feature than a bug. Everything about the theme is pretty ingenious. Not sure why OTHELLO is clued as the play and not the character, since it's the character who is DOUBLE-CROSSED (the character who says "I will wear my heart upon my sleeve" is actually IAGO). But ... shrug, if that's a flaw, it's a pretty minor one.

The fill was not nearly as enjoyable as the theme. A PLUSSES looks nuts with two "S"s (although the dictionary tells me this is an acceptable, if less common, plural) (21A: High marks). I'd say "PISH!" to PISH, for sure. I don't think I've ever heard it not followed by "POSH," and even then, I've barely heard it (80A: "Horsefeathers!"). I have seen EASE ON in the puzzle before, but I still don't believe it's real. You can EASE OFF a pedal, but EASE ON, er, not so much (95D: Touch lightly, as a gas pedal). A Scooby-Doo partial (!?) is never welcome ("Ruh-ROH!"). The insane clue on POP SUGAR tells you it's not exactly ready for prime time (also, not all POP has SUGAR, so the clue is bad) (76A: Certain drink + what that drink has a lot of = women's lifestyle website). Then there's SINTER, which ... what the hell? Looks like a typo for SINNER. Or WINTER. First time I've ever seen this alleged "word" (83A: Combine using heat without melting, as particles). 

I also had no idea there was a place called SESAME PLACE (18A: Theme park with attractions like The Count's Splash Castle and Oscar's Rusty Rotten Rockets). I had SESAME WORLD in there for a bit. It's a better name, frankly. SESAME PLACE just kinda dies. Not exciting at all. Where the hell is this so-called "Place"? Huh, looks like there are two of them now: the original in Philadelphia (since 1980), and another in San Diego (as of 2022). So it's real. Not enjoyable to me, but real. HAS A BEEF may as well be HAS A BEEF SANDWICH for how standalone-worthy it is (not very) (81D: Disagrees (with)). And there are at least four (4!) fantasy/scifi answers in the grid. Lord of the Rings characters, not my thing (77D: Elf portrayed by Cate Blanchett in "The Fellowship of the Ring" = GALADRIEL). There's also all the short gunk I haven't even mentioned yet (ESSE NAM ALAI ATS OSS AMA SLR CFO NYS SGTMAJ NOLI etc. etc.). But gunk aside, most of my dislike for the fill is a matter of my own ignorance and also my own (dis)taste. And some of it was actually pretty good. "STOP IT, YOU TWO!," for instance (22A: "That's enough bickering!"). Or "IT'LL BE FUN" (2D: "Come on and let loose for a while!"). Or LATE BLOOMERS (109A: They'll get there eventually). If the fill took the overall quality of the puzzle down, it didn't take it down much. I still think this is one of the better Sundays I've seen in recent months—a good Sunday theme concept is a rare and valuable thing. 

The SINTER / POP SUGAR / GALADRIEL area (i.e. the SE) was the only part that threatened to derail me. Got a little anxious there for a bit. Oh, I also didn't really know SET. As a mythological figure, he kind of rang a bell, but I definitely needed every cross to be sure. PAOLO v. PAULO (43A: ___ Veronese, "The Wedding at Cana" painter) was interesting there for a bit, before I figured out TOTEM (39D: Where idols go head-to-head?). Then there was the large, literal kealoa* at 15D: Hawaiian for "long mountain" (MAUNA LOA). I was lucky enough to know the Greek word TELOS (39A: Ultimate end, to Aristotle), as well as the word AIT (small island in river or lake—chiefly British; learned it from crosswords) (44D: British isle). Without those two answers, that LOA / PAOLO / TOTEM section could very well have been a disaster. 

Bullets:

• 25A: Sci-fi protagonist who says "I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life" (NEO) — one of the many sci-fi/fantasy figures populating the grid today (joining the elf and the EWOKS and ALF). Not sure how I feel about the cross-reference with Morpheus today (28A: Morpheus, to 25-Across = MENTOR). With the theme being all about the relationship between people in the grid, something about having an additional, non-thematic pairing of people in the grid felt like static. Interference. Static interference. You know what I mean. Or you don't. Which is fine.
• 45A: Queen ___ Land (region of Antarctica claimed by Norway) (MAUD) — pfft, no idea. Absolutely none. Considered Queen MAUI Land before I double-checked the clue and saw "Antarctica" and "Norway" in there.
• 49A: With warts and all (AS IS) — first, you don't need the "With," not sure what it's doing here. Second, I had A TO Z here at first. Something about the "all" made me think of "the whole shebang," "all of it," "everything ... from A TO Z!"

• 19D: Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon ___" (PYM) — I knew this. How did I know this? I couldn't tell you anything about this story. Sometimes you just get lucky. There's also a Barbara PYM. I also couldn't tell you anything about her (except that she's an author).
• 84D: Ixnays from Irkutsk (NYETS) — I don't know what kind of alliteration or sing-songiness this clue was trying for, but I think it misses. Luckily, it misses wildly, and wackily, which makes me love it. Good effort! Nice hustle! You'll get 'em next time!

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

**kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.    

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Symbols of love on some bridges / SAT 1-3-26 / Emoji indicating interest / Hairstyle associated with lesbian culture / Tech that records movement / Exaggerated speaking style that promotes language development / Corner piece / Part of a certain steering system / Start of a declaration of 47 B.C. / Where French fries are "frog sticks"

Constructor: Hannah Slovut-Einertson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: PARENTESE (58A: Exaggerated speaking style that promotes language development) —

Baby talk is a type of speech associated with an older person speaking to a child or infant. It is also called child-directed speech (CDS), [...]  caregiver register/speech, [...]  motherese, caretaker speech, infant-directed speech (IDS), nursery talk/language, or parentese.

CDS is characterized by a "sing song" pattern of intonation that differentiates it from the more monotone style used with other adults e.g., CDS has higher and wider pitch, slower speech rate and shorter utterances. It can display vowel hyperarticulation (an increase in distance in the formant space of the peripheral vowels e.g., [i], [u], and [a]) and words tend to be shortened and simplified. There is evidence that the exaggerated pitch modifications are similar to the affectionate speech style employed when people speak to their pets (pet-directed speech). [...] 

Child-directed speech (CDS) is the term preferred by researchers, psychologists and child development professionals. (wikipedia)

• • •

[5D: Symbols of love on some bridges]

This was fairly typical of recent Saturdays, in that I had some difficulty getting off the ground, but once I did, there wasn't much disturbance for the rest of the trip. I guess I'm doing an air travel metaphor this morning. Anyway, rough take-off, but then no turbulence and a relatively smooth landing—kinda bounced on the tarmac a little with PARENTESE (!?), but the crosses all checked out, so crisis averted. I was, as they say, today years old when I saw the word PARENTESE for the first time. Somehow made it to 56 (25 of those years a parent) and nope, not a once. I always hated when adults changed their speech dramatically when talking to a kid, but I guess for a baby baby, a proper baby, it makes sense. Seems natural. Of course you speak somewhat slower, you enunciate better, you soften your voice—you know, put some love and encouragement in your voice. All these things are normal. But I've heard people use this voice to an intolerable degree, and beyond the age at which it's really appropriate. When I tried to look up PARENTESE just now, there's all these sites trying to coach parents on how "best" to talk to your baby and dear lord if you love your baby and you talk to your baby and hold your baby and smile at your baby and maybe read to your baby, you're gonna be fine. Babies have been learning to speak forever. No need to add to modern parental anxiety. My favorite thing about PARENTESE (aka "child-directed speech") is that it is apparently closely associated with "pet-directed speech" (I also just love that someone decided to give that a name). PARENTESE is an ugly neologism and not a term I am glad I "learned." But the rest of this grid looks pretty good, for the most part. Didn't have the whooshy fun of yesterday, but had enough solid marquee answers to make the experience enjoyable.

Some of the original-seeming answers today just rub me the wrong way a little. We've dealt with PARENTESE. There's also CLICK HERE, which is a fine, real directive, but evokes an awful online advertising environment that I take pains to avoid. As for DELETE THIS ... if you are ending your "incriminating emails" with DELETE THIS, allow me to suggest that you are not very good at crime and should maybe consider going straight. At this point in our surveillance society, I just assume that every single word I type into a computer leaves a trace that someone somewhere can find if they really want to. Deleting means I don't see it, but ... it's probably stored somewhere; some autosave or archiving feature will get you in the end. Or so you should assume, if you're doing crimes (esp. if you are planning them via emails). If one way someone might get caught is ON TAPE (44A: How someone might be caught), another is "by writing DELETE THIS in incriminating emails." 

I liked LIKE LIKED (19A: Really went for). I LIKE LIKED it. No, I don't wanna marry it, don't be childish. I also liked RICE COOKER and PADLOCKS and PLANKTON and, strangely, BIBLE CAMP (29D: Place with a chapel and mess hall). I've never been to BIBLE CAMP. I can't say I'm pro- or anti-BIBLE CAMP. But I like the phrase. It's original. Can't remember seeing it in the grid before. Yep, looks like this is a debut. Some debuts are good! Alas, Not All Debuts Are Good™. Sorry, "OK. AND ..." (53A: "Your point being ...?"). Back to the Island of Malformed Colloquialisms with you! Sadly, "OK. AND..." will now enter the wordlist of every tom/dick/harry and proliferate like kudzu. Probably. Sigh. Oh well. 

All difficulty today came from wrong answers that seemed like they occurred by design. I mean, the clue writer probably had a pretty good idea they were steering solvers a specific wrong way. The first and most punishing such clue was 1D: Unwanted mail (BILL), for which I naturally wrote in SPAM. Because that is actual "unwanted mail." BILLs may not be "wanted," but you expect them, they show up, whatever. That's life. SPAM is not life, or should not be life—nobody expects or wants it. So when I finally got BILL I was mildly resentful, mainly because the "wrong" answer was the better answer. I felt somewhat similarly about writing in CASTLE at 10D: Corner piece (STAPLE). You'd never call a STAPLE a "piece," boo. I see what you're doing, but boo. A CASTLE (or rook) in chess, now that's a piece! A corner piece! I had the -LE and so CASTLE went right in. Fortunately, TOBEY (16A: Actor Maguire) and PÈRES (20A: French fathers) were both gimmes, so CASTLE didn't last long. The last of these highly misdirective clues came at 27D: Part of a certain steering system. I had the "R" in place and so (again, naturally!) wrote in RACK (as in "RACK and pinion steering"). But apparently we're steering horses, so REIN. REIN fits the clue. Can't be mad at REIN.

Bullets:

• 22A: Hairstyle associated with lesbian culture (MULLET) — uh ... sure. I guess that tracks. For some lesbians. I associate the hairstyle more strongly with unfortunate trends in men's hairstyles, circa 1992. Here's a MULLET fact I'd like to share. You can decide if it's a "fun fact": "After the much-publicized 1992 DC Comics storyline in which Superman apparently died, the character returned to the 1993 follow-up storyline "Reign of the Supermen", in which he was depicted with a mullet. The cancelled Superman film project, Superman Lives, would have depicted Superman with a mullet" (wikipedia). Superman with a MULLET would truly be a Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• 31A: One in hand? (ACE) — think of a Blackjack "hand," where an ACE represents "one" (or "eleven").
• 25D: Performer who's juggling a lot? (ONE-MAN BAND) — I do not associate ONE-MAN BANDs with "juggling." Is it metaphorical? I mean, are they both metaphorical: ONE-MAN BAND and "juggling"? If you're doing everything yourself, you're a ONE-MAN BAND (of sorts), which means you're "juggling" lots of tasks. I was imagining a literal ONE-MAN BAND. I thought, "play all those instruments and juggle them too? Dang. That's talent."

• 26D: Tech that records movement (MOCAP) — "motion capture." Both MOCAP and MOCAP SUIT have appeared in the grid before, but both those appearances were just last year, so it's new to Crossworld, if not a particularly new technology.
• 45D: Where French fries are "frog sticks" (DINER) — please stop. It is not the 1930s and this is not a wacky comedy. I adore diners and I frequent diners and never, literally never, never in my entire life have I ever heard anyone use whatever "DINER slang" this is supposed to be.
• 46D: Start of a declaration of 47 B.C. ("I CAME") — you may know this declaration better as VENI, as in VENI, VIDI, VICI.
• 50D: Lake ___, body of water near London (ERIE) — a cheap and entirely unsuccessful bit of misdirection here. The London in question is London, Ontario.

[14D: Emoji indicating interest]

Time for the very last of the 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 now! (if I somehow forgot or missed your pet, please let me know—I'll do some kind of addendum feature later in the month)

Here's Kermit in his last happy moments before being absolutely shredded by Cleo. RIP, Kermit.

[Thanks, Jeannie and Michael!]

Here's Ruby photobombing Snoopy

[Thanks, Mark!]

Here's Teaser, who is apparently allowed on the table, what the hell? "I'm a cat!" OK, Teaser, sure, for Christmas only, you are a cat.

[Thanks, Mitch!]

And finally, we have Lincoln, who is not particularly "Lincolnesque" (7D: LANKY), but does have a certain somber formality about him. It's probably the tie.

[Thanks, Erin!]

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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